Young Workers Fear Career Stall
I read with interest from a recent Vancouver Province article reporting that young workers fear they will lose promotion opportunities to aging baby boomers whose retirement plans have been upset by the financial crisis. The economic crisis has made things more complicated because age seems to be an increasing ‘perceived’ barrier to leadership opportunities.
According to a recent Angus Reid poll, the youth of today want leaders who are under 50, or better yet, under 40. Young employees want young leaders and value vision over experience and charisma, the poll suggests. Across Canada, 40 percent of young adults said they believe vision is the most important quality of business leadership; 33 percent value experience most; and 21 percent want charisma from their leaders.
Smart managers must pay attention and work extra hard to ensure that age is never a barrier to leadership opportunities. And more boomer leaders should really prove the young people wrong by better marketing and publicising their continued vision!
